Thursday, November 06, 2014

The ridiculous Republicans

So, if there’s one issue that should not be a partisan issue, this is
it. After all, we’re talking about saving the planet. Surely
Republicans and Democrats should be able to agree on that. John McCain
and Barack Obama did in 2008. But, sadly, that’s not the case today.
Congress remains hopelessly deadlocked on climate change because
Republicans, for whatever strange reason — be it ignorance or campaign
contributions — either deny it’s happening, deny human activity is
responsible or deny it’s serious enough to worry about.

California
Gov. Jerry Brown, in fact, stirred up a little trouble back in May when
he asserted there was “virtually no Republican” in Washington who
accepted the science about climate change. As it turns out, he was right
on target. Politifact tested his claim and rated it “Mostly True.” Out
of 278 Republicans currently in Congress, they found only eight — or 3
percent — who believe in climate change. For the record, they are Sens.
Bob Corker (Tenn.), Susan Collins (Maine), Mark Kirk (Ill.), John Thune
(S.D.) and Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), and Reps. Chris Smith (N.J.),
Michael Grimm (N.Y.) and Rodney Frelinghuysen (N.J.).

Sadly, the
other 270 Republicans follow the lead of know-nothing Sen. Marco Rubio
(R-Fla.), who denies any link between human activity and climate change.
On May 11, Rubio told ABC’s Jonathan Karl: “I do not believe that human
activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these
scientists are portraying it.”